1932 Democratic Presidential Primary Elections

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Roosevelt in red, Smith in blue, Garner in green, favorite sons in yellow.

Roosevelt contested AL, CA, GA, MA, NE, NH, NY, ND, OR, PA, SD, WV, and WI. Smith contested AL, MA, NH, NJ, NY, PA, and WI. Garner contested only CA.

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How come Garner defeated FDR in California?

California's Role in the Nomination of Franklin D. Roosevelt

Great article, if you have a JSTOR account. But, concisely, Hearst and McAdoo (both conservative Democrats) were behind Garner, and Roosevelt and Smith split the liberal wet vote in Northern California.

And why Smith even contested the Alabama primary?
Did he really believe that he could beat a WASP in KKK's heartland?

Your guess is as good as mine, but Smith lost by a considerable margin (though I don't know how much exactly).

How come Garner defeated FDR in California?

And why Smith even contested the Alabama primary?
Did he really believe that he could beat a WASP in KKK's heartland?

Why did Smith even try at all after the thumping he got in 1928? That would have been like Dukakis running in the 1992 Primary.

Yes, if Dukakis was black. There was a substantial portion of the electorate that wanted to see a Catholic president in 1932. Smith could have won if he hadn't let much of his base slip away to FDR while he was deciding whether to run.

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NY is surprising, considering FDR was the state's governor at the time. Seems like he would have been able to deliver the state for himself.

Al Smith was from NYC. Tammany Hall was behind him.

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I'm surprised Garner stayed out of the South.  He'd have won all three primaries easily.

California was the last primary. I don't believe he was a candidate prior to that.

Was Garner's plan kind of like Johnson's in 1960? Where he wouldn't really contest the primaries, and wait till the Convention?

You could say that, but I don't think he ever had any hope of winning, dark horse or not, which is why he and none of the other minor candidates decided to swing votes to Roosevelt. The whole campaign was largely the brainchild of William Randolph Hearst, the newspaperman (and a Californian).

Who won VA?

No primary.

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Roosevelt contested VA

Typo, my mistake.

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What do you guys think would have happened if Smith or Garner had won the nomination?

Catastrophe, since both were blind economic coservatives and would have committed the same errors that Hoover. Probably, in 1936, a progressive republican cliches the nomination and destroys Smith. Then, republicans would become the party of Civil Right and Welfare State, whereas democrats will turn into southern reactionaries in the late Sixties ( I see a Rockefeller/Wallace race in 1968 ). Reagan and Dubya would be democrats, Mondale and Kerry would be republicans.

Smith wasn't a conservative. He was a buisness-progressive. Essentially this was what Hoover was, beliving that working with buisness to create voluntary measures to revive the depression. Garner was a conservative though.

Smith did become a conservative by the late 1930s.